KLUK CGDT Showing 12th August 2010 CTFW
Cape Town Fashion Week has officially started. PR consultant to the event, Vista has been working hard, jetsetting, partying and all the good stuff that comes with an event of this magnitude. The clock is ticking…. Day 4 and 5
Day 4:
It’s Friday morning, I realize this because I’m awaken by that dreadful sound of my alarm. I dread getting up. My head’s heavy and pounding and my eyes feel dry. Suddenly I get flashbacks to the night before……. What was meant to be just a simple dinner to celebrate my best friend’s birthday turned out to be a full night out. I think it must have been about 02h30 when I finally get to lay myself to sleep and now I’m paying for my sins!
Thoughts of calling in sick crossed my mind but then I was slapped to reality by the fact that I have a three-day event coming up.
I got to the office and before I could even sit down and settle, a phone call came in looking for me. It’s a blogger asking for accreditation. Now there’s a lot of bloggers out there, so one needs to check and scrutinize every single request for accreditation and actually check out that some of these people are legitimate.
At 10h00, I meet with the Marketing liaison for AFI. We discuss logistics for Cape Town and what needs to happen on the ground. We spend an hour and a half and then we adjourn. She seems happy and leaves and I carry on with my work.
I make a phone call to a Sunday newspaper to discuss possible angles for Sunday’s edition. The editor shuts down a few of my ideas. She seems distracted on the phone, but I carry on anyway. We end the call with me having to come back to her with new angles.
I am frustrated as I hang up the phone, but then I tell myself that we will find something, whatever it is because I need this coverage. I think about what’s not been covered and what people out there would want to read about fashion that they haven’t read before.
I obsess over this and then I make a call to the guy who casts models. I look at the model pool and ask him what unique stories does each of them have? He gives me a stunning human interest story of a model from the townships who’s only doing her second fashion week now. I tell it to the editor and she seems happy. I tick that one off.
After that, I send out new invites to media for the Media Briefing and Pre-Party to launch fashion week. I make another tick to my list. Time is now 12h30.
I call the lady who’s handling travel and accommodation to make sure that all travel logistics for media are in order. We go back and forth confirming details.
I’m getting anxious as the day progresses because today I fly down to Cape Town. I’m a little panic-stricken because there’s still a lot to do and follow up on and time is just not on my side.
At 14h30, I finally shut down everything and make a dash out of the office, on my way to the train station which would take me to the airport.
On the way, it dawns on me that I hadn’t eaten today and the headache goes away, but the body is drained.
Some two hours later, the pilot welcomes us to Cape Town and the plane comes to a complete stop and we disembark.
Day 5:
It is Saturday, I did not check in at the hotel. Instead, I went home to my family’s house and spent some time with them. I hadn’t seen them since January when I left for Joburg after Christmas vacation.
My aunt gives me a car to use for the weekend as we hadn’t booked one. I go check in at the hotel where I’ll be staying for the duration of fashion week.
At the hotel, I get settled in and then I check my mail to see if I have any urgent matters to attend to. I make a call to the MD to remind him of his Sunday interview. I also check in with Allana, the marketing liaison, to make sure that we were still on track with everything.
Soon after that, I get a call from my friend in Joburg and he asks me if I had wished my cousin Happy Birthday. I draw a blank for a moment and then my friend shouts which cousin he’s referring to. “My gosh, I’ve been so inundated with work and completely lost track of everything else. I’m gonna call him now,” I say to him as I hang up.
Later on, my friend from high school calls me and asks if we could meet up later. I decided to basically just see them both at the same time. Sorted, I say.
After those calls, I do a quick update on facebook and twitter and then I get ready for the night.
